Oscar L. Chapman

Oscar L. Chapman

Oscar Littleton Chapman (born October 22, 1896 in Omega , Halifax County , Virginia , †  February 8, 1978 ) was an American politician . He was a member of the cabinet of US President Harry S. Truman between 1949 and 1953 as Secretary of the Interior .

Life

Chapman studied at the University of Denver , where he received his doctorate from the Law School there , and at the University of New Mexico . From 1918 to 1920 he served in the US Navy Medical Corps .

As a member of the Democratic Party , he led the 1930 election campaign for Edward P. Costigan , who was then also elected as a representative of Colorado in the US Senate ; two years later he worked in the same position for Alva B. Adams and was again successful with his candidate. After the Democrats won the 1932 presidential election , Franklin D. Roosevelt appointed him Assistant Secretary of the Interior.

In 1939, Chapman was among the early victims of the Congressional Un-American Activities Committee when then Chairman Martin Dies Jr. published a list of government employees belonging to a Communist- controlled organization. In Chapman's case, a payment of two dollars to the American League for Peace and Democracy was recorded for him, which was interpreted as a membership fee. However, it was a donation for the Republican fighters in the Spanish Civil War .

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1944 , Chapman stood up for incumbent Vice President Henry A. Wallace , whose re-nomination wanted to prevent the conservative wing of the party. His candidate for office, Senator Harry S. Truman, was impressed by Chapman's commitment. When Truman took office after Roosevelt's death, he was promoted to Under Secretary of the Home Office; Chapman was also a member of the president's advisory staff in May 1948 when he decided to recognize the new state of Israel .

After Oscar Chapman supported the president in his re-election in 1948, he appointed him the following year as the successor to Interior Minister Julius Albert Krug in his cabinet . There he remained until the end of Truman's presidency in January 1953. He then worked as a lawyer for a law firm in Washington .

Web links

Commons : Oscar L. Chapman  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Oscar L. Chapman in the database of Find a Grave (English)
• Oscar L. Chapman in the Miller Center of Public Affairs of the University of Virginia (English)